As my awesome podcast Squaring the Strange (co-hosted by Pascual Romero and Celestia Ward) comes upon its one year anniversary, I will be posting episode summaries from the past year to remind people some of the diverse topics we’ve covered on the show, ranging from ghosts to folklore to mysteries and topical skepticism. If you haven’t heard it, please give a listen!
Ben and Pascual again revisit the Blue Whale game panic and the two young people said to be the first victims of the game here in the US. The desire to find explanations for a child’s suicide, as well as confirmation bias, can lead grieving parents to wrong conclusions. Then for the main topic, Ben recounts his investigation of the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp, a red-eyed, seven-foot-tall, automobile-munching cryptid allegedly dwelling near Bishopville, South Carolina. Christopher Davis, a teenager at the time, was the first to report the creature back in 1988, and his encounter is by far the gold standard—most sightings since then are merely reports of car damage attributed to the Lizard Man. Ben looks at Davis’s story and what factors lent it credibility, and whether that credibility was deserved. The details of the eye-witness account raise questions and have some testable aspects: such as seeing a blur of green reflected by red tail lights in the dark, or the speeds and distances involved with the reported pursuit. The human mind (especially after a working a long shift and having car trouble late at night) is capable of filling in details when given ambiguous input, and the Lizard Man seems a great example of this. Further, the damage to Davis’s car is not documented anywhere, and early reports claimed there was no more than a scratch on a fender—yet this aspect of the Lizard Man became a celebrated feature of the monster.
You can hear the episode HERE!
You can find more on me and my work with a search for "Benjamin Radford" (not "Ben Radford") on Vimeo, and please check out my podcast Squaring the Strange!